If John Steinbeck had set his "parable" in the 21st century, who might his main character be? Where would they live? What would their life be like? How would they suddenly become rich? What problems would they face as a result of their sudden wealth? How would the story end?

Grab your most creative "thinking cap" and rewrite "The Pearl" for modern times! You are allowed to change the characters’ names, occupations etc. You can even add new characters and situations. There will definitely not be a pearl in your story.

1) Make notes under the following headings:

Setting

Characters

(including occupations etc)

Incident that causes the main character to become rich

How others try to cheat the main character

His/her attempts to avoid harassment

His/her increasing greed

His/her mistakes

2) Discuss your story ideas with classmates. Add as much detail as possible to your notes so that you have a clear image of your character’s appearance, voice, attitude to others and so on.

Here’s an example (not complete, of course):

THE DIGITAL CAMERA, by John Beanstalk

Setting

Jurong East, Singapore (Hasina and her family live in a small HDB apartment)

Characters

Hasina: a street sweeper, 43 years old; 4 teenage children; shy, poorly educated, cannot speak much English; has a hip problem (she was hit by a car 5 years ago); worries a lot about school fees for her children and hospital fees for herself; also worries about Karim’s debt

Karim

, Hasina’s husband, 46 years old: a key cutter who sets up his stall in night markets (not a very profitable business); Karim owes $1,300 to a money lender who often visits the apartment and threatens him

Incident

While sweeping a footpath, Hasina finds a top-of-the-range Sony digital camera; she hides it, takes it home, shows it to Karim. They decide to keep it and try to sell it.

They pretend that the camera is a present from a relative in Canada.

How others try to cheat the main character

Hasina and Karim offer the camera to the money lender, who claims it is a fake worth only about $60.

Karim takes it to a second-hand camera shop, where the owner tries to persuade him to exchange it for an impressive looking "Rikoh" camera with a telephoto lens.

The couple’s increasing greed

At first, Hasina only wanted to pay some bills, but later she dreams of new dresses and jewellery. Karim dreams of owning a motorcycle. Even thought the camera has not been sold yet, he borrows some more money in order to pay a deposit for a bike.

3) In a group, share your story ideas and combine them to create a new story. Present your story to the rest of the class as a mime. Your teacher will "pause" the mime at intervals to allow other students to say what they think has happened.

4) Then choose one incident (e.g. the doctor’s visit, or Kino’s attempt to sell the pearl) from Steinbeck’s story and rewrite it with your 21st century characters and setting. (Approx. 200 words)